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HONIARA, Solomon Islands (RNZI, Jan. 1) - Fearing an outbreak of diseases in cyclone stricken areas, the Solomon Islands National Disaster Management Office is calling on people in the Temotu province to take health precautions.

The Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation reports the Office’s Director, Loti Yates warning residents on Tikopia and Anuta islands to be careful of diseases such as red-eye, diarrhea and vomiting.

He says that people should be careful about disposing waste and to boil water before drinking.

Disaster officials are concerned about Tikopia and Anuta residents – variously reported at a total population of between 1,300 and 4,000, because communication links have been broken since the storm swept through on Saturday night.

Meanwhile, Australia has offered financial help to the Disaster management office.

Australia has offered to pay the fuel for the police patrol boat, Lata, which will carry an assessment team to the Temotu...

HONIARA, Solomon Islands (Radio Australia, Jan. 1) – Solomon Islands authorities say will be several days before the world knows the fate of at least 1,300 people living on two remote islands in the Solomon group that were slammed by a cyclone of historic proportions.

Weather experts say South Pacific cyclones don't come much bigger than Zoe, which had 300 kilometer an hour winds spinning around its eye when it hit the eastern tip of Solomon Islands last Friday and stayed there most of Saturday.

Zoe formed over an unusually warm pool of water between Fiji and the equator on Christmas Eve.

It intensified rapidly on Boxing Day as it spun towards Solomon Islands.

And by the time it hit the small islands of Tikopia and Anuta in the outer Solomon Islands, it was one of the strongest cyclones ever seen in the South Pacific.

There's been no radio contact, and the country's Disaster Management Office is worried about the people living there. Plans to...

SUVA, Fiji (Radio Australia, Jan. 1) – Fiji is warning that 200,000 jobs in the country’s sugar industry are at risk because of a challenge to Europe's sugar regime by Australia and Brazil.

Such a loss would be a heavy blow to the nation’s economy, Fiji officials say.

Brazil and Australia want African, Caribbean and Pacific sugar producing countries to sell their produce at world market prices and not at prices set by the European Union.

Fiji has been given the go ahead by the EU to become a third party to hearings at the World Trade Organization and will receive financial help to get legal advice and representation at the WTO proceedings.

Currently, Fiji gets special quotas and sells its sugar in EU markets at almost three times the world market price.

In the past five years, Fiji's sugar export earnings have been more than US$400 million.

January 1, 2002

For additional reports from Radio Australia, go to PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT News...

In a unanimous decision by the three American judges, an earlier High Court’s default judgment against Dornier was upheld.

The dispute centered on two down-payments totaling $2.1 million that Air Marshall Islands made to Dornier for the purchase of two Dornier 328 aircraft in 1999. The purchase was subsequently halted by Air Marshall Islands, but Dornier refused to refund the down-payment. This was even though Air Marshall Islands obtained a letter from Dornier that the downpayment would be reimbursed if promised financing for the balance of the more than $20 million cost did not materialize, the Supreme Court said.

Dornier, which is currently in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings in Germany, attempted to get the court to put a hold on Air Marshall Islands’ suit pending the outcome of...

SUVA, Fiji (RNZI, Jan. 1) - Soldiers who signed a petition calling for Fiji’s defense chief, Rear Admiral Frank Bainimarama to resign will be charged with either mutiny, inciting mutiny and failing to suppress mutiny.

Fiji live quotes Military’s spokesperson, Neumi Leweni as saying that the names of soldiers who signed the petition have been received as well as those who had encouraged the service persons into signing it.

She says that once investigations into the removal petition are completed, the military will decide whether or not to charge the soldiers.

Two weeks ago Fiji’s Peacekeepers Association had launched the petition calling for Rear Admiral Frank Bainimarama to resign as the commander of the country’s military forces.

The Association says that the Rear Admiral had refused its request for a goodwill payment of over US$24,000 to each of its 1,000 members.

The Peacekeepers Association is also suing the government for more than US$100...

SAIPAN, CNMI (Saipan Tribune, Dec. 31) - Landowners can receive their long overdue payments from the CNMI government soon, after Gov. Juan N. Babauta yesterday signed the Land Compensation Rules and Regulations.

The measure was sent to the Commonwealth Registrar for urgent promulgation.

The approval and publication of the regulations are required so the government can release the money to landowners.

According to MPLA Commissioner Henry Hofschneider, Babauta signed the regulations following review and approval of the guidelines by the Attorney General’s Office. The emergency promulgation makes the regulations immediately effective and lasting for 120 days.

This means the government, through the MPLA, can begin paying those with outstanding land compensation claims—upon the availability of the money.

Hofschneider said the agency now awaits the release of some loan money from Bank of Guam for this purpose. "We’re expecting the BOG to give us the go...

MELBOURNE, Australia (The Age, Jan. 1) - Strong winds and stormy conditions delayed a disaster assessment team bound for remote islands in the Solomons group hit by Cyclone Zoe on Dec. 28.

Zoe struck the Tikopia, Anuta and other smaller Solomon islands late on Saturday night.

Oxfam Community Aid Abroad field representative in Honiara, Val Stanley, said the assessment team, due to leave Honiara for the remote islands on Tuesday, would leave Wednesday following warnings from the meteorological office.

The Australian government has ordered an RAAF aircraft - most likely a maritime surveillance Orion - to fly over two of the islands on Wednesday morning.

Stanley said poor communication systems meant information on the state of the islands and the welfare of their 4,000 residents was not yet known.

"They are so far-flung that even in normal times we can't communicate with them easily," Ms Stanley said.

Pacific Islands Report is a nonprofit news publication of the Pacific Islands Development Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Offered as a free service to readers, PIR provides an edited digest of news, commentary and analysis from across the Pacific Islands region, Monday - Friday.